Printers sometimes put a flowing, talky song into an unusual meter because they can't think of anything else to do. They think "let's just call for long phrases, and people can go by the words."

Lutherans are great ones for unusual meters. I opened by old hymn book and the second song I looked at (Lob Sei Dem Allmaechtigen Gott) has the following number of quarter notes in each measure.

1 (pick-up note)
6
3 - 1
6
3-1
6
3-1
4
2-2
3

The tune is from the 17th Century. It has not time signature on it, and as a member of the congregation, I would never have missed it. Our view is that we have words to sing, and we'll sing them till we get to the end.

(There are MIDI's of this on the net, but the trouble is they are all theme-and-variations by J.S. Bach, and you can hardly find the tune in them.)